Boogiepop and Others Episode 3

Boogiepop and Others 3

I’m hoping that this series starts giving the episodes different titles, because I’ll be pretty disappointed if we make it all the way to the end of the series and the title is still simply, “Boogiepop and Others 18.” I have hope though that now that the intro arc is complete we’ll start getting different titles.

They still may be numbered within arcs, but I at least want the different arcs of the series to have different titles like the Monogatari series. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

But, as I mentioned, this week’s episode seems to conclude the introductory arc of the series involving Echoes and the Manticore. As a disclaimer, I probably won’t use the names for a decent amount of characters in this post because they all seem to be throw-aways other than the main duo, and so learning their names isn’t important to me.

With that said, the girl who discovered Echoes has gone missing, killed by the Manticore as we saw in the previous episode. However, she may have been the wrong person for the Manticore and her human subordinate to kill, because she has friends who are actually worried about her.

One of those friends is Nagi Kirirma, the girl who appears to be the protagonist of the series. Another is the girl’s boyfriend, Shirou Tanaka, and the final of the trio searching for her is the class president or something.

The only reason I know Shirou’s name is because I had to look it up for the picture in the section below, and I even had to look up Nagi’s name. That’s how much the characters in this series blend together. I honestly only knew Boogiepop, Echoes, and Manticore when I started writing this post.

And, that’s one of my issues with this series so far, all of the characters seemingly blend together. There are a lot of supporting characters who look almost exactly the same, and whose names I’ll never know, even by the end of the 18 episodes if they last that long.

Now, you may be thinking, “well, the main cast don’t look all that similar.” You’re right to think that to an extent, but they still look pretty similar to some of the background characters. In fact, when they were going around asking people if they’d seen the missing girl, they asked a girl who looked exactly like the one who was missing.

Also, as we’ll see, even the characters who appear to be main characters can be killed off at any moment without warning. So is it even worth learning their names either?

It’s a Trap!

While Shirou and the class president are searching for Shirou’s missing girlfriend, the subordinate of the Manticore offers to help them find Nagi because he claims she would know where the missing girl is as she’s one of her friends. However, he’s really just using them as bait to lure Nagi out of hiding.

If he had attempted to lure out Nagi on his own, she would have gotten suspicious of him. But since it’s a group of students looking for her, and at least two of them have a reason to be searching for the missing girl, Shirou and the class president, Nagi is more likely to show herself.

But, despite knowing the students who are trying to find her, Nagi still knows that she’s probably going into a trap. So, she takes the offensive and strikes first to capture the three students and have Echoes make sure none of them are being controlled by the Manticore.

However, just because none of these students are the Manticore or are being controlled directly by the Manticore doesn’t mean they still aren’t threats. Later on in the episode, after Nagi sets them free, the Manticore’s subordinate slits her throat with a packaging knife after stabbing Echoes in the collar with a poison-laced pen.

Echoes and the Manticore

Once Nagi is taken down by the Manticore’s subordinate, the final battle between Echoes and the Manticore begins. During this fight, Shirou runs away, as he probably should, because this fight is no place for mere humans.

After being stomped on by the Manticore, Echoes grabs Nagi’s body and carries her up to the rooftop where she’ll be safe from the rest of the fight. During this time he also apparently gives some of his life force to her in order to keep her alive.

However, this means that Echoes is no longer at his full strength while going up against the Manticore. Normally Echoes would be the stronger of the two, but him giving up his life force for Nagi, and the poison that was injected into him, leaves the Manticore feeling as though the battle was too easily won.

Before the Manticore can finish Echoes off, the class president steps in and yells at her, because what else is she supposed to do when confronted with such a monstrosity? Echoes then decides to give up his life in order to send his knowledge back to his home world (or something).

He beams himself up towards the stars in the direction of the Manticore, attempting to take her down with him. But, the Manticore’s subordinate pushes her out of the way and is disintegrated in her place by Echoes.

Now the only two left standing on the battlefield are the Manticore and class president.

Helpless, the class president tries to run away, only to have her escape cut off by the Manticore. However, just before the Manticore deals the final blow, Boogiepop saves the class president by ensnaring the Mainticore in wires, cutting off one of her arms.

Shirou Tanaka

And now, the true hero of the series reveals himself, Shirou Emiya Tanaka. Wielding his bow, Shirou returns to fire a single arrow through the head of the ensnared Manticore, killing her once and for all. But seriously, Shirou being an archer can’t possibly be a coincidence, right?

With that, both the Manticore and Echoes are gone, and I can only assume the next arc will focus on some other antagonist or supernatural creature. Though, it is possible that Echoes could make a return since he’s an alien of some sort and it’s not completely out of the question that he’s still alive.

Conclusion

The first two episodes of this anime were definitely all over the place and hard to follow at times, but I enjoyed them overall. In this third episode, however, I started to see more of the downfalls of this series. As mentioned before, the fact that none of the characters really stand out besides the protagonist is one thing, but that’s not all.

The fight scene between the Manticore and Echoes wasn’t the best, to put it nicely. It felt like there was little effort put into the fight choreography, the art was minimal, and the animation looked fairly choppy. These are the kinds of scenes in which the animation and overall quality of the series should be improved and shine, but this wasn’t the case here.

In all honesty, the best parts of the Boogiepop and Others anime are the OP and ED songs. “shadowgraph” by MYTH & ROID and “Whiteout” by Riko Azuna are, as the kids would say, bangers. And, the reason I wanted to even watch this series in the first place was because MYTH & ROID were doing the OP, I love all of their songs and can’t wait for a second album.

So, what are your thoughts on this series so far and this week’s episode in particular? Do you find some of the characters hard to remember and tell apart, or is that just me? Also, what did you think of the animation quality in this episode? Let me know in the comments.

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